My climbing partner and I (ages 33 and 30) arrived at Eldo early on March 29, intending to climb Swanson’s Arête, a multi-pitch 5.5. We got to the base around 10 a.m. There was a very inexperienced party starting the first pitch of an adjacent ro...
On March 6 a solo climber attempted Call the Copps, an ephemeral ice climb (WI3 M3) on the east face of the Second Flatiron. When he found the route deteriorating in warm weather and threatened by falling ice, he instead climbed mixed terrain near...
On August 16, 2014, a guide (uncertified) took four clients (two males and two females in their 20s) to a top-rope climbing area in Boulder Canyon. None of the clients had climbed before. The clients first did two routes that had anchor bolts with...
On March 16, in the early evening, I was climbing at the Boulderado. As a moderately experienced climber, but new trad leader, I attempted to lead Jam It (5.8- ). This single-pitch route passes a small roof with a great hand-size crack. After plac...
On March 31 we began the direct start of Deep Freeze, a rock chimney (M5-6) that finishes on a low-angle snow slope in a broad gully. This leads to a shelf before rambling ice and a final ice pillar (WI5-6). My partner started up the chimney and f...
Torre Traverse in a Day: Alex Honnold and I had only one sure goal for the season: the Torre Traverse in less than 24 hours. We had nearly succeeded on this awesome objective the year before, retreating two pitches below the top of Cerro Torre—the...
On September 19, at approximately 5:30 p.m., YOSAR was notified about a climber who had taken a 15-meter fall on Lurking Fear. The climber suffered serious injuries, including possible head trauma. The reporting party was another climbing team on ...
On June 17, Yosemite Search and Rescue responded to a 6 a.m. request for help from a solo climber on pitch 15 of Tangerine Trip (VI 5.7 A3/C3). He reported that he had lost partial use of both hands and that completing the climb was no longer viab...
On October 30, at approximately 8:45 p.m., Yosemite Dispatch received a report that a climber, Ethan Gillett, had fallen 100 to 200 feet from the South Face Route (V 5.8 C1) on Washington Column and landed on Dinner Ledge. Another climber, a Wilde...
On May 27, five climbers had gathered near Camp VI on the Nose—a team of two and a team of three had been climbing alongside each other over the previous days. A member of the team of three was leading midway up the Changing Corners pitch, above C...
On May 9, at approximately 9:30 a.m., YOSAR dispatch received a call about an injured climber who had taken a 20-foot leader fall on the first pitch of the Nose. As YOSAR mobilized to El Cap Meadow, a ranger at the base of Pine Line (a 5.7 crack j...
At approximately 10 a.m. on October 10, rangers Forrest Coots and Matt Dooley received a radio transmission reporting a climber (male, mid-20s) with a broken ankle on the Hotlum-Bolam Route. The climber reportedly fell above 12,000 feet on an ice ...
On June 16 a female climber was descending the Avalanche Gulch Route with crampons on her boots. While glissading just below the Red Banks, at about 12,000 feet, both of her crampons caught in the snow, breaking her ankles and taking her for a goo...
Michael Murphy, in his mid-50s, was climbing the Avalanche Gulch Route with partners early the morning of June 11. They reached the Red Banks and decided to turn around. They had begun descending when, at about 12,400 feet, Murphy caught his cramp...
On April 10 a male climber in his 20s attempted a solo ski ascent via Avalanche Gulch and Casaval Ridge. The weather was clear and the conditions ideal for such a trip. He started climbing at 4 a.m. and did not summit until 7 p.m. While descending...
On June 18, Chris Moore, Cooper Varney, Will Wacker, and I completed the first ascent of the Central Tower of Rapa Nui (7,015’). This formation is the centerpiece of a collection of granite towers two miles east of Klukwah Mountain (7,000’), to th...
Over the course of two weeklong trips, one in September 2015 and one in August-September 2016, Trey Warren, Tyler Barker, and I established Infinite Jest on the Wisdom Tooth, a prominent formation on the east face of Dog Tooth Peak, a few miles ...
As the plane swooped into the Canyon Creek Glacier, Chris Wright and I caught the first glimpse of our objective: the 6,000’ west face of Celeno Peak (13,395’). With our eyes glued to the window, we watched as it simultaneously towered above and f...
In August 1993, Lorna Corson and Norm Larson climbed one pitch up Big Chief Buttress, an unclimbed 900-foot tower in the Washakie Lake cirque. They descended after that first pitch, as they felt the climbing was not within their ability. Twenty-th...
The Nipissis area is a premiere ice climbing venue in Québec that was discovered by Patrice Beaudet during a ski traverse in 1994. Over numerous trips, he gave the area his undivided attention, climbing many classics lines, including Le Filon (145...